Yang Rong

Who is Yang Rong?

Yang Rong, also known as Yung Yeung and Benjamin Yeung is an exiled Chinese tycoon. He was born in Anhui province in 1957. Only a year after the magazine Forbes proclaimed him China's third richest businessman in 2001, Yang fled to the US following a dispute with the Chinese government.

Famous for his close association with a Chinese microvan manufacturer that would later go on to produce licensed versions of BMW products using indigenous components, Yang has continued to be involved in the automotive industry since his flight to the US. There, his ventures have yet to achieve the same scale of success as those in his native China have done.

In the US, Yang has been involved with at least two fraught businesses, Greentech Automotive and Hybrid Kinetic Motors. The latter is a hybrid vehicle company with a stated aim of manufacturing cars in Alabama, and the former touted plans to build all-electric vehicles in Mississippi. Hybrid Kinetic later dropped its Alabama plans due to a funding shortfall, and Yang has distanced himself from his other American venture, Greentech Automotive.